A look back at the first half of 2012: Murder, fire and a scandal

2012 was another year of triumph and tragedy, sorrow and exultation. Here's a recap of the first half of the year.

JANUARY

Jan. 2: Fitchburg Mayor Lisa Wong is sworn in for her third term.

Jan. 4: Fitchburg teen Rafael Serrano, 19 is arraigned in Fitchburg District Court for posting messages on Facebook about wanting to go on a shooting spree at Fitchburg High School.

Jan. 4: Corey Buxton of Ayer dies after he runs into traffic while trying to escape being robbed.

Jan. 9: A Maryland company asks the Lunenburg Planning Board for permission to place 11,000 solar panels on land zoned for residential use along Electric Avenue.

Jan. 10: Christopher Fletcher is arraigned for murder, aggravated rape, kidnapping and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in connection with a Dec. 6, 1986 murder. Modern DNA testing helped lead investigators to Fletcher who was already serving a life sentence without possibility of parole for the murder of a Lunenburg woman in 1995.

Jan. 11: A pilot and student survive crashing on take off at Fitchburg Municipal Airport and land at the end of the runway in a vacant lot on Benson Street.

Jan. 11: The state Department of Labor Relations issues a complaint against the Lunenburg School Committee for "violating state labor laws when it unilaterally froze the wages and benefits of teachers and professional staff."

Jan.

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13: Chad Lebouf, 32, of Leominster is killed by a passing motorist while changing a flat tire on the the side of Interstate 190.

Jan. 15: A resident of 34 Frankling Court in Gardner dies in a house fire. Twelve others escape the blaze.

Jan. 17: The Lunenburg School Committee presents its school reconfiguration plan, generated by an advisory committee, that would reconfigure grades 6 through 12 into one building.

Jan. 19: Former Ashby firefighter Scott Florio is released on his personal recognizance after being arraigned on a single assault-and-battery charge. Florio and his wife got into an altercation in front of the firehouse over the summer. Florio, also an EMT, was put on administrative leave after the incident and later resigned.

Jan. 20: Lancaster Town Administrator Orlando Pacheco admits he was arrested when police in Westboro found him drunk and passed out on the hood of his car at a gas station in August 2011. He issues a public apology.

Jan. 24: State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education renews North Central Charter Essential School's five-year charter but orders the school to improve its test scores. Mayor Wong hails it as a triumph since Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester had recommended placing the school on probation while renewing its charter.

Jan. 26: Rollstone Bank & Trust announces plans to build a new three-story building for a branch office and office space at 24 Monument Square in Leominster at the site of the former Friendly's restaurant.

Jan. 27: Former Shirley Town Administrator Kyle Keady is sentenced in Worburn Superior Court to three years in state prison. He had pleaded guilty to 26 charged related to years of illegal and illicit recordings he made in Town Hall.

Jan. 30: The Monument Grill in Leominster which had been a staple in downtown turns off the stoves and closes its doors for the last time.

FEBRUARY

Feb. 1: Gov. Deval Patrick visits Mount Wachusett Community CollEge and tries to dispel fears about his proposal to consolidate administrations for 15 community colleges. College President Daniel Asquino does not appear convinced.

Feb. 6-7: Leominster's St. Anna School fifth-grader Hannah Wyman meets President Obama during second White House Science Fair.

Feb. 7: State Supreme Judicial Court approves expansion of Wayside Estates mobile home park at 83 Clark Road in Shirley. Court rules the local zoning regulators' concerns about traffic and safety were invalid when they rejected the proposal. Wayside had asked to add 14 units to the 65 already in the park.

Feb. 10: Holden Landmark Corp. and Worcester Magazine publisher Gareth Charter announces he is closing the weekly newspaper The Community Journal immediately. The paper served Ashburnham and Westminster nearly a decade but could not overcome financial difficulties.

Feb. 17: A handgun and knives are found in a locker at Ayer-Shirley Middle School.

Feb. 22: The tide came in on Rocky the lifeguard at Leominster's Rockwell Pond at 1:17 p.m., ending the Leominster Veterans Memorial Center's first Ice Out fundraiser. The winner was Wendy Wiiks, the grants administrator at City Hall who donated the money to the Veterans Center.

Feb. 27.: The Leominster License Commission grants a license to Mark Zulkiewicz to run a 12-room boarding house at 18 Allen St. The building site is grandfathered from new zoning requirements for boarding houses. The commission rejected a request by Tyrone Jones on character issues the previous August.

MARCH

March 5: UConn student Lukasz Gilewski, of Newington, Conn., pleads no contest to negligent homicide with a motor vehicle for fatally running over Westminster native David Plamondon. He receives two years of probation and a six-month suspended sentence.

March 6: Former Gov. Mitt Romney wins the presidential primary election with 250,321 votes. Rick Santorum is a distant second place with 42,205 votes.

March 12: The Leominster City Council unanimously rescinds an ordinance requiring at least 25 percent of the working hours on publicly funded projects be completed by city residents. The ordinance has been on the books since 1996 but not enforced until 2011.

March 19: John Denapoli was found dead on a ski lift at the Franconia Notch Ski Area. Paramedics attempted to revive him but were unsuccessful.

March 20: Portions of the Johnsonia building ceiling collapse, bringing new safety concerns about the burned downtown Fitchburg building.

March 26: Leominster municipal union members pack City Council chamber to complain about contract talks. Mayor Dean Mazzarella has asked the council to adopt sections 21-23 of Chapter 32B of state law to negotiate with health-care providers to mirror the state health-care plan. The law could freeze out unions during negotiations, so they have countered with a request to adopt Section 19 of the law, which would preserve their collective-bargaining power.

March 27: A South Street Elementary School student in Fitchburg is identified as a possible measles case. The school district takes fast steps to keep all unvaccinated students home until further tests reveal the original student did not have the disease.

March 29: A Worcester Superior Court jury finds Alex Scesny guilty of the aggravated rape and murder of Theresa Stone in Fitchburg in October 1996. Stone was found on Kinsman Road Oct. 25, 1996, about a half-mile from Arn-How Farm and where Fitchburg High School now stands.

APRIL

April: Leominster developer Jim Whitney announces plans to redevelop two blighted buildings at 98 Adams St. that were once home to Commonwealth Plastics and McAn Shoes. The buildings will be converted into office and residential space. The redevelopment could cost as much as $8 million with phase 1 costs estimated at $2.5 million to $3 million.

April 5: Veteran Lunenburg police Officer Omar Connor, who suffered a severe neck injury and was out of work for nearly a year after being dragged over a concrete wall by a suspect he was chasing, works his last shift before starting with the Groton Police Department.

April 11: Leominster businessman John Morrison signs a formal agreement with the city and Doyle Field Commission to use the Doyle Field baseball diamond for his collegiate-level baseball team the Wachusett Dirt Dawgs. Morrison fields a team in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League.

April 15: The administration at Lunenburg High School looks at an $11 million budget just to make critical improvements to the school if it does not receive funding from the Massachusetts School Building Authority for a renovation or new building project.

April 16: Work begins on new $7.5 million intermodal center at the North Leominster train station on Nashua Street. The Federal Transit Administration is funding the project. The now-closed parking lot has 146 spaces for automobiles, but the new three-story facility is designed for 350 spaces.

April 19: Leominster High School English teacher Stephanie A. Laslocky of Gardner is arrested at her home on drug charges, including possession of a Class B drug and possession of a Class B drug with intent to distribute. Her boyfriend Sean Turner is also charged. Superintendent of Schools James R. Jolicoeur immediately suspends Laslocky.

April 26: Community Healthlink announces it will close the Lipton Counseling Center in Gardner, which provides mental health services to the area, because of financial difficulties.

MAY

May 8: Walking home from her boyfriend's house, an apparently inebriated Christine Spain collapses on the railroad tracks as a freight train rumbles toward her. Spain's pit-bull named Lilly pulls her to safety but suffers severe injuries from the passing train. Her right front leg was amputated, and her pelvis was fractured in multiple places.

May 12: Several canoers fall in Leominster's Nowtown Reservoir about 2 a.m. One victim is able to swim to shore and reach Route 2, where he flags down a State Police trooper. Two people are still in the water when firefighters arrive and two are on the shore, including one suffering cardiac arrest. Firefighters James Cameron and Matthew Burke receive state's individual Heroic Awards at the 23rd Annual Firefighter of the Year ceremony Dec. 18. Lt Jeffrey Nickel, Lt Michael Marino; and firefighters Kris Keckler, Joshua Burdett, Jonathan Campagna, Vincent Appolonio and Nicholas DeCarolis receive the group group Heroic Award

May 17: A standoff with John Austin, 65, of Ashburnham, ends peacefully after five hours. Police say Austin barricaded himself in his home after making threats against police that morning.

May 21: Leominster Comptroller John Richard announces the city has reached agreement on health-care reform costs with its 13 unions, a move that will save $6 million over three years.

May 21: Clinton-based manufacturing firm Nypro opts to withdraw financial support for the Wachusett Chamber of Commerce after being asked to help pay off the organization's large debt despite paying large membership dues. As a result, the chamber, which served Harvard, Sterling, Lancaster, West Boylston, Boylston, Bolton, Berlin and Clinton closed its doors.

June 5: Off-duty Fitchburg Deputy Fire Chief David Rousseau rushes into a Daniels Street building fire to rescue the residents with passerby Bob Eyles. Rousseau helps two of the third-floor residents escape but can't get back inside before a fourth floor tenant is forced to escape the flames by jumping. Rousseau is given the Medal of Valor during the state's 2012 Firefighter of the Year ceremony Dec. 18.

June 7: Adam Frantz, of 811 Chase Road in Lunenburg, is convicted of conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute nearly 2,000 pounds of marijuana. He is sentenced to five years in prison, fined $10,000, and must serve four years of supervised release upon completion of his sentence.

June 11: Low registration numbers force organizers to cancel the Longsjo Classic bike race. The race was canceled the previous year Main Street was closed in the aftermath of the fire in the Johnsonia Building.

June 18: The Leominster School Committee approves the first of two new innovation schools for the district. The Center for Technical Education is turned into an innovation school so it can focus more on STEM subjects such as science, technology, engineering and math. A second innovation school, The Center for Excellence is still trying to find a suitable home so it can start classes.

June 19: The Leominster teachers union approves a new three-year contract that provides a 1.5 percent cost-of-living increase each year. The School Committee had approved the contract terms June 18.

June 19: HealthAlliance Hospital unveils the $14 million renovation and expansion of its cancer center at its Burbank Campus in Fitchburg. The Simonds-Sinon Regional Cancer Center features a unique linear accelerator to target cancer treatment more accurately than others.

June 19: Despite pleading her case to Lunenburg selectmen, Laura Caron-Gustus, is not reappointed acting treasurer and collector after she failed to apply for the proper bond insurance.

June 19: Fitchburg Deputy Chief Paul Vaillancourt retires 33 years to the day after joining the fire department.

June 21: The first of two override elections in Ashby, Pepperell, and Townsend fails. The override would later pass in two of the three towns.

June 21: Officer Nathan Beauvais, a corrections officer at Souza-Baranowski Correction Center in Shirley, is stabbed in the neck while conducting rounds at the prison. The jailhouse shank misses his spinal cord by a half-centimeter. Four inmates are later arraigned in superior court for their involvement in the attack.

June 22: Vandalism at the former Central Steam Plant in Fitchburg causes an oil spill that leaks into the Nashua River and lasts for weeks, with both the state Department of Environmental Protection and the federal Environmental Protection Agency intervening. The plant, which used to power the city's paper mills, is an oft-targeted spot for scrap-metal theft, despite numerous attempts to secure the building.

June 24: Building Blocks, a public art project done in conjunction with the Fitchburg downtown business organization PRIDE and the Fitchburg Art Museum, debuts on Main Street across from City Hall. Members of the community painted more than 1,000 square wooden blocks to transform a chain link fence into a beautiful attraction that draws attention for months to come, with countless people stopping by to find their square and show it off or to simply look at the work of others.

June 28: Tyrone Jones, who has battled the Leominster License Commission for about a year to expand a boardinghouse on Allen Street, is charged with fraud in an unrelated case. The U.S. attorney general's office alleges he received $782,510 in contracts his company was not eligible to receive. His company B&J Multi Service Corp. allegedly applied for minimally competitive government contracts set aside for small businesses owned by disabled veterans.

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